Fight for Fallujah

In a separate development, the Iraqi army reported that it had managed to chase out the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) group from a suburb of Fallujah, which lies 50km west of Baghdad, after fierce clashes.

Government troops were backed by US-led air strikes as they retook Saqlawiya on Saturday, some 7km northwest of Fallujah, Colonel Mohammed Abd, an army commander in western Iraq, told DPA news agency.

"Security forces raised the Iraqi flag in the suburb after pushing deep into the area and killing at least 27 Daesh elements," he said, using an Arabic acronym for ISIL.

Also on Saturday, at least 34 Iraqi soldiers were killed in two separate attacks by ISIL in the same area.

The first attack occurred in the early hours of Saturday, as the armed group mounted an attack with a suicide car bomber targeting Iraqi army and Shia fighters to the south east of Fallujah city, killing at least 14 soldiers and 15 injuring others.

WATCH: Iraqi civilians recount horrors of battle for Fallujah

Later in the day, 20 Iraqi soldiers, including Sunni tribal fighters, were killed in an ISIL suicide car bombing targeting an Iraqi army convoy at the main road of al-Azrakiyah, northwest of Fallujah city, according to Iraqi military sources talking to Al Jazeera.

The blast was followed by an ISIL assault on the convoy which resulted in the destruction of 15 military vehicles.

On Wednesday, at least 130 Iraqi soldiers were killed by a series of suicide attacks in Fallujah.

Several bombings have hit Baghdad since the offensive on Fallujah started on May 23.

The operation for Fallujah has come at a dire human cost, with thousands of civilians trapped between ISIL fighters and the advancing Iraqi army.